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Category: Wet Felting

A Tea Cosy and other efforts.

A Tea Cosy and other efforts.

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Hello.

For my post this month, I have made a felt tea cosy, started and completed a quilt, and my grand daughter photographed me in the denim jacket that I have worked on over the last few months.  Tea cosies seem very popular just now – I’m thinking about Lyn’s wonderful cosy from a couple of weeks ago – my cosy is a little more sober than Lyn’s beauty!

I had watched a video tutorial some time ago from Fiona Duthie; she was demonstrating a vessel in a vessel technique,  I thought it looked intriguing and so very effective.  I don’t think I had the skill to make something similar, but I thought perhaps I could make a tea cosy using the instructions.

I made a paper pattern for the cosy, then made a double pattern using some flooring underlay, and made it bigger by about 3 inches all round, for the inside and outside layers.  I was hoping that this would yield the correct size when shrinkage is complete.

I found the layout to be a little confusing, especially the inside out view of one side of the cosy.  I had the tutorial up on my laptop while I was doing the layout, along with a pair of socks – one right side out, the other inside out – to ensure I got it right.  I wanted the outside to be green, and the inside – that would be visible through some apertures – to be purple.  It is even confusing trying to describe the process here.

The felting went well, the shrinkage worked, and the size turned out as I hoped.  I think (know) that I made the green (outer) side thicker than the inside; I thought that the inside would not fit properly if it was the same thickness as the outside.  My other conundrum was where to cut the windows in the outside layer, how many, the shape and size – a one time only decision.  It is now dry and the inside fits very nicely.  I will probably try to do a vessel in a vessel next year sometime, and I hope to manage the challenge of the vessel’s narrow neck that is in the video tutorial.

 

So, onto the next item – my quilt. This has been brewing in my head for a little while, and I needed to get on with it. It is made using the many, many hexagon shapes that I have made and squirreled away over the last few years ‘for a future project’.  These hexies, small and large, some pieces of my old embroideries, and some vintage tray cloths, were used for the quilt top.  All of these various items were then appliqued onto nine rectangle shaped pieces of fabric (an old cotton high thread count bedsheet). These were then joined together using some coordinating fabric as sashing, into one large piece of ‘fabric’. I used some of the same fabric for the border around the quilt edge, and also used some to make the binding.

 I had to find some backing fabric, and batting for the ‘sandwich’.  The backing fabric is actually a deconstructed  king size duvet cover, and it coordinates very well with the quilt top.  Then all I had to do was to put the three layers together and to quilt ‘the quilt’.  I used my sewing machine to quilt in straight lines, in a sort of grid, but not a complicated design, and I drew the lines on with a Frixion pen.  It was quite heavy to move the quilt through the machine, and that was a bit tiring really! I am super happy with the result, and it looks just how I imagined it would. Quilts can be very expensive items to make, both in materials and time. The quilt top materials were all repurposed, and charity shop finds, the backing fabric – a duvet cover, was a charity shop find too, a good label though, so the batting was the only item I had to buy.

I had promised to show my jacket, so attached is a photo of me wearing it, and I am very pleased with it too, lots of compliments given which is very gratifying, there is a little difficulty in understanding how I completed the stitching – even after I have explained how I worked the shapes – eyes tend to glaze when I mention a grid!!

Some of these photos are very large again, apologies.

Am I losing my marbles?

Am I losing my marbles?

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Do you feel like the days, weeks and months just keep getting away from you? No matter how hard you work, paddling faster and faster, the to-do list never gets any shorter? It has been 6 weeks since Felters Convergence, I was hoping for a quiet spell before the Christmas rush but it feels like it has been another insanely busy period. When I stop and think, “What have I done / achieved?” I’m at a loss…. I can’t remember!

Thank heavens for the camera roll in our mobile phones!

Early October saw my first ever pit firing with the Manurewa Potters, it was a lot of fun, with a shared lunch but, for me, the results were a little disappointing. I love colour and contrast and this style of firing produces more muted, subtle tones. It’s probably not a branch of pottery for me but I’m glad I got to try it.

These were my pots, the red / orange rings around the top were from underglazes I painted on before firing, the browns, greys and blacks were from the materials added to the fire. I have started waxing the one on the right, which has intensified some of the colours and it’s growing on me but the one on the left I think will be re-fired with some more traditional glazes.

In mid October I hosted my first Open Studio event in New Zealand, as part of the Franklin Arts Trail (which gets unflatteringly abbreviated to FAT). It was a huge success, I met so many fascinating people, introduced some of them to felt-making and even sold a few of my finished pieces, so now I have space to make more!

This photo was taken during the reorganising / scurryfunging, I’m sorry to say I forgot to take any photos during the event. Can you spot the ever-helpful cat (Aoife)?

A few felty friends and I had a play date just before Halloween where we made felted eyeballs using a variety of different techniques (felting around glass marbles, polystyrene balls and making solid wool balls).

Halloween weekend was spent with the lovely Waikato Creative Fibre group at a wonderful 3-day fibre retreat. I even managed to get some spinning done in between teaching a couple of short felting classes and taking a mosaic crochet class.

Fingers crossed I now have enough yarn to finish making a sleeveless top with a tulip hem:

Auckland is starting to feel much more summery and the weeds in my veg patch agree, they were definitely winning…

But after 6 days of hard graft and 1 broken garden fork later I was delighted to find half a dozen leeks, some potatoes and a couple of onions ready to harvest and I no longer cringe at the state of this part of the garden:

I contacted Spear and Jackson about the fork because it had a “10 year warranty” sticker not really holding out much hope that they would replace it but amazingly the replacement has just arrived, all the way from the UK, less than 2 weeks after I emailed them! Now that’s good service 🙂

A few months ago Auckland Felters applied to hold a group exhibition at Nathan Homestead, an historic building that has just completed a year-long renovation, and we were successful – YAY!

The exhibition doesn’t open until next March but deadline for the marketing materials was last week so there has been a lot of frantic activity as we formulated a plan for a felting workshop and market day. The date of our workshop falls on 25th April, ANZAC day (the antipodean equivalent of Remembrance day) so we thought a field of felted poppies would be a fitting project.

With only a few hours before the deadline I found myself hastily felting a sample for the brochure. The result is ok but not my best work. If I can find a spare 30 min I would like to fix the central flower with some needle-felting and add some more highlights and shading.

My local craft / gift shop, Clevedon Creatives + Co, have started stocking some of my work so there has been quite of lot of trips back and forth to get it set up. Now my studio looks even more empty than it did after FAT but I am pleased to have a wider audience for my work.

The Christmas season has already started here with my first artisan craft fair last weekend. This market, at the Franklin Arts Centre in Pukekohe, was a very successful start to the season, fingers crossed this is a good omen for the next few weeks after 2025 started with a bit of an economic whimper.

The felted soaps are eternally popular at my local craft markets so I have been furiously making these most evenings for the last few weeks:

There has been quite a lot of dyeing going on too, mostly silk hankies and silk top as I try to keep up with demand. These plaits will be added to my Etsy shop over the next few days.

Finally a bit of felting fun, a new journal cover. When I started laying out the wool for this I was planning to cover it with yarn in a grid pattern but just as I was about to start laying out the yarns it screamed, “WATER!”. So I rummaged in my bag of prefelt scraps and found some space-dyed orange and yellow pieces. Perfect for fish! A couple of white silk hankies to emulate splashing water / surf et voila!

I’m so glad I ditched the yarn, the jumping, playful fish are much more fun! I can’t help but smile when I see them 🙂

Phew! No wonder the last few weeks have felt busy 🙂 Why couldn’t I remember any of that without my phone…?

Felting Glasses Cases

Felting Glasses Cases

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Although a recent eye test showed I didn’t need a new prescription, I decided to buy some new glasses anyway to give me more colour/style choices and also hopefully reduce the time I spend trying to find my glasses.  I have a place at home where they’re supposed to live but I often thoughtlessly plonk them down somewhere and then get cross with myself as I play hunt the glasses. 

On seeing my new glasses’ accompanying dull acrylic felt cases, I decided to make some wet felted wool cases of my own, either for myself, or to sell or give as gifts. 

I want the cases to fit snugly, so that the glasses don’t slip out but also don’t need any kind of closure fastening: a simple wet felted sleeve. I like the simplicity of this idea and also the challenge of working them to exactly the right size.

While on holiday recently, I bought a carded (mostly) Wensleydale wool batt from a farmers’ market in Ithaca, New York, that I thought might be suitable and I was looking forward to trying it out.

Here’s some of the batt, the work of Windsong Farm in Burdett NY www.windsongfarm.com

I like a sturdy glasses case as it has to withstand being bashed about in my capacious handbag, so I decided on 4 layers of wool: two natural white merino tops and two of the Wensleydale batt – which includes quite a lot of locks.

I calculated a generous size for the case and multiplied the finished dimensions by 1.7 to give me a nice firm felt.

Resist
2 layers of natural white Merino
First layer of Wensleydale batt
Second layer of Wensleydale batt with a few extra locks

And here it is dry: side 1, side 2 and end-on to show how thick the felt is.

I was happy with the result, though because of the thickness and shrinkage it took quite a long time to felt it fully. 

My second case I decided to treat more like a seascape picture. First, I rounded the corners on one end of the resist to give the case a more rounded bottom. I laid out two layers of wool: pewter for the top half that would become the sea and white for the lower half, that would become the beach. 

I laid two layers of blues with white angora highlights over the pewter section to form the sea, and  two more white layers topped with a strip of very sheer recycled spotted silk scarf which I hoped would look like pebbles for the beach.

I then ran a line of kid mohair top along the length of the case where the sea meets the beach to form a wave. I find this type of mohair felts with a nice wiggle that suggests a breaking wave.

layout layers 1 & 2
adding the sea
a silk scarf for the beach
kid mohair for a breaking wave

Joining the silk so as not to leave a gap or have a bulky overlap was a bit fiddly but I find it works most easily with a very sheer silk. It’s interesting how dominant the wave looks in the photo because of the curvature of the sides.

The finished seascape case

Once that was done, it occurred to me that perhaps people view their glasses cases more in portrait mode than landscape?  I decided case 3 would be less ‘landscape’! I also started to think more about how people use glasses cases. I’m sure some, like me, have them rattling around in a large bag.  But I suppose some people want to put them in a pocket, so may want something a little thinner?

As I was rummaging in one of the giant boxes of charity shop silk scarves I’ve collected for nuno felting, I found a very sheer small orange scarf with wonky purple circles that I thought I’d try for case number 3. I laid out 4 very fine layers of orange merino tops (to reduce the overall thickness).

My plan was for the orange of the silk to merge with the orange of the wool so that the circles were more prominent than their background. I added three pieces silk to each side of the case.

4 thin layers, of merino, 3 wonky silk circles per side laid out then prefelted ready to full

I’m still felting these very firmly.  You can see the shrinkage when comparing the finished case to its resist. I’m not completely sure why, but I’m getting more shrinkage in the width than the length.  Probably it’s because it’s easier to roll it in that direction, using my hands and various thicknesses of pool noodle inside the case during fulling.  Whatever the reason, it’s nice and firm so I can afford to chop a bit off the length of the resist.

Left – finished & dry; top right – testing the fit; bottom right – showing the shrinkage

For case 4 I decide to go thinner still (I’m thinking of someone putting their glasses in a jacket breast pocket) so switch to 2 layers of wool – this time a natural marled grey merino – which I think looks quite pebble-like.  I added a little white wool to the surface to enhance the pebble look. 

I forgot to take progress shots but here is the finished case.

It is definitely thinner and a little softer, though it’s still felted very firmly. 

Now I’m starting to think about the time these cases are taking to felt.  I have a week in a gallery in December and will also be offering some things for sale in two other galleries that that have a local handmade artesan ‘market’ throughout December. I could sell some cases as they might make nice gifts, but I’m not sure how much people will be willing to pay for a glasses case.

Cases are generally supplied free when you buy glasses and I know most people have no idea how long something like this takes to make. There’s not a whole lot I can do but I thought that making two at once may reduce the making time a little. 

So, cases 5 and 6 will be twins.  I cut a new double-length resist and laid out some natural marled grey Corriedale wool.

I like the white veining on the merino ‘pebble’ case but it’s fairly subtle so I add more of it to these ones.

Top: double-size resist with wool laid out and wetted tightly round the resist. Middle: case 5 (rounded bottom). Bottom: case 6 (rounded both ends)

I keep twin one (case 5) the same as the previous cases, with a rounded bottom and flat top, and cut a rounded top of twin two (case 6) to make it overall more symmetrical.  Actually, I really like the symmetry of this rounded one, but realise that the top is a bit more flimsy than previous cases: presumably because I’m overlapping more wool at the ends of the resist than in the middle, where I have cut these two apart. 

Because I prefer the single to the twin cases, I decide to make the next pair alongside each other but separate.

I have some lightly prefelted ‘pebbles’ that I made earlier, so set these out on the bottom halves of two resists (on two layers of merino wool) with 4 layers of blue & green merino wool and strands of white angora on the top half to create the idea of sea.

Left – layout; right – prefelted

I soon abandoned working on  both at the same time as the pebbles were a bit tricky to felt round so many corners so I worked on the two separately

Comparing the finished one with the wetted out one, you can see that I lost quite a bit of  the pebble definition but I’m still fairly happy with them and they are very sturdy. Indeed, when dry and lightly shaved you can see more of the pebbles, in particular the nuno elements.

I have some Corriedale wool that I dyed ages ago (to make this bag)….

….so for the next pair I go for a blue, green, purple colour fade.

This time I use just 2 layers of wool and they are (not surprisingly) considerably thinner and slightly smaller than the previous pair. They are also much quicker to produce as the layout is fairly simple.

Finished: cases 7 & 8 colour-fade hand-dyed Corriedale

For number 9 I try lightly prefelting 2 mussel shells (one for each side) which I felt into a sandy-coloured background.

Left & middle – layouts side 1 & 2. Right – nearly finished case

I only made this yesterday and it’s still a bit damp. The finished image isn’t a great photo as I’ve taken it in domestic electric light but it gives you the overall impression.

And finally, another recycled scarf but this one is white dots on a red background from a fairly open-weave wool fabric.

To get round the fiddliness of joining / overlapping fabric on this size and shape of resist, I cut out two sections of the scarf and laid one on each side, with gaps along all the sides.

Here’s the layout and here’s a photo of the finished glasses case. I only made this today so it’s very wet. I’m hoping the dots will be a little clearer when it’s dry.

So, what have I learned from all this? Well, I’ve enjoyed playing with all the different layouts. I drew up a list of ideas and I haven’t even completed half of them so there’s plenty more to play at when I have time. 

I think my favourite more complex ones are the combined pebbles & sea.  For the more simple layouts I like both the grey & white pebbles and the blue / green / purple hand-dyed Corriedale ones.  To sell the glasses cases I will have to focus on the simple ones as the more complex layouts take way too much time to make. I’ve already made a couple more of the grey & white pebble ones and will probably make a few more simple brightly coloured ones before I move onto other things. I’m not sure yet which ones I will keep or give as gifts. Do you have a favourite? Or any you don’t like?

Making Bubbles

Making Bubbles

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This is an old post from several years ago of some fun bubbles I did with a friend. I thought you might like to see it again. This last weekend was our guild sale, and I have nothing to show you felt wise. Jan has so many pictures of the sale to show you, I will leave that post to her. I have such fond memories of this friend and our felt journey.

A while back, I went to a felting friend’s for a few days of fun.  She showed me how to make bubbles and cut them open to great effect. Here are the pictures of what I did.

First of course, I laid out some wool to felt. But these are samples, so plain felt won’t do. I added silk threads, a silk square, some silk roving and other wools to see how it would all go. This is the underside.

This is what the top side looks like

Then, of course, there was the usual rolling and fulling.

rolling rolling rolling

Here they are all finished and ready for the marbles.

The next step is to put marbles in while it is still damp. You pull the felt tightly around the marble and secure it with an elastic, and now it looks like a bubble. We used the elastics they use to put braids in horses’ tails and manes because they are small, stretchy,  strong and cheap.  You put in as many as you like and whatever sizes you like. You can also use felt balls. The felt balls are good if you want to leave them uncut. Marbles are too heavy for that.

Here they are all tied up.

Felt with marbles tied in to make bubbles

Here they are cut.  I cut the tops off, I cut x’s and star patterns, and some I turned inside out. If you cut more off, you see more of the inside, and you can stretch them flatter, too.

Bubbles cut open

You can see how the underside becomes the inside of the bubbles. These samples started out about 6×8 inches, and the finished pieces are about 1.5 by 2.5 inches. They take up a lot of room. I only have 2 of them left; my friend’s dog ate one. I think I will glue them to some leather and make brooches out of them. They are lots of fun to do. I made some wrist cuffs with this method, and I will blog about them next week.

Further revelations on Onion Skins and book review on Pigments (plus new course announcement!)

Further revelations on Onion Skins and book review on Pigments (plus new course announcement!)

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I’m hoping the featured image will make you curious!

Before I start into my post I want to mention my new course on wet felting which was recently launched with the Felting and Fiber Studio. It’s designed for felt makers who are new to using resists.

It’s fully supported by ‘how to’ videos and PDFs and we work with the simple circle. You will learn how to make a vessel and at the end I discuss with you the possibilities of how you can take it further.

So, you start by learning how to make something like this ….

Then I discuss a few variations that can be made with the circle and you could choose after the course, to make something like this ….

I discuss how to make this sculpture on the new course

This course is permanently open so if you fancy it you can register anytime. Curious? Then feel free to head over to https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/online-course-wet-felting-a-vessel-using-a-simple-resist/ to find out more.

Promotion over! Thanks for your patience, Now let’s move on to my post.

Onion skins were at the centre of my last post – I talked about making pigment out of the dye. I mentioned that I would return and show you a little bit more of what I did with some of the dye. Here is the link to the post in case you missed it: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/08/18/is-this-compost-or-dye-material-actually-its-both/

I had set aside around half of the onion skin dye pot to try out on some fabric (I used the rest to make the pigment). I decided to experiment with a little margilan silk and some woven wool fibre. I mordanted these fabrics first, using an alum solution. The alum attracts the dye particles and the colour is less likely to wash out.

Margilan Gauze dyed with yellow onion skins.
Woven wool sample dyed with yellow onion skins

 

I love the vibrancy of the results. I would describe the wool sample as deep orange while the silk sample turned out more of a golden colour. It is quite the challenge to get the photo to reflect the true colour of the fabrics. I now need to work out what to do with these two fabrics. To be honest, there is not a lot of either and I don’t have a toning fibre to use behind the margilan – I think I will have to make up another batch of the onion skin dye.

Once I finished dyeing the few bits of fabric, I transferred the remainder into a 5 litre container. I basically forgot about it and only remembered it when I came to put together this post. So it has been sitting around for two months.

Now I need to digress a bit. Our lovely little pooch, Archie developed a lump on his elbow a number of months ago. We have been keeping an eye on it as his vet warned that it would become impossible to remove if it grows much bigger. (there would not be enough surrounding tissue to easily sew up the wound). As fate would have it, it grew and Archie went ‘under the knife’. He was discharged wearing his ‘cone of shame’ which we quickly swapped for an inflatable version – much more comfortable for Archie and for the humans too – less bruising on our lower limbs. The only downside was that the cushioning around his neck caused him to snore. He sleeps in the bedroom with us and this was cute for about five minutes….. The cone was tied with an elastic bandage. I was having fun playing with the weave and thought it might be fun to felt with.

Archie in his blow up collar and sore paws

I made a bangle. First I laid down the bandage and wrapped it around a resist which matched the length of the bandage. Then I laid down layers of merino fibre – 6 thin layers in total. I felted it to fit my wrist and shaped it. The whole purpose was to see how it would take the old onion skin leftover dye. I did a cold mordant – I soaked it in 10% of its weight in alum and left it overnight. I rinsed it out and popped it into the dye bath, slowly bringing it to the boil.

Here is the result. The colour is a lot lighter than its first run. That said I decided to speed up the process as the smell of the dye bath was pretty awful. In fact it was pretty disgusting. I endured it for around one hour and then my nostrils got the better of me. I poured off the majority of the dye bath and then left the bangle to cool in the rest. I also lit a scented candle (it really did take away the stink – good to know going forward!)

Bangle made with merino and elasticated bandage dyed with yellow onion skins

While I like the colour, I think I will use it as a base to play with stitches. So I may be back to you on that.

I mentioned in my last post that I had just ordered a book on pigment making and that I might review it, if readers would like that. I know I am stepping away slightly from textiles and felt here but it is possible to combine pigment and textiles (alcohol inks anyone?). I was feeling quite excited as I had ordered the book and it was on the cusp of delivery. I got a positive response so here it is.

The book is called ‘Natural Watercolor Paint Making’ and it is by the artist Joanne Green. Some of you may already follow Joanne on Instagram (#joanne_green_art). I love watching her magically transform plant matter into pigments and then reconstitute it into a paint which she uses in sketches of the plant which has formed the basis of the actual pigment. Very clever and a great pleasure to watch.

Cover sleeve of Joanne Green’s book

Joanne’s book is beautifully presented and very readable. It’s a bit like sitting with a knowledgeable friend having a chat over coffee. The materials and supplies list is very comprehensive and I found that there’s really nothing on the lists that could not be sourced. With regard to the topics covered, I think the easiest way to show this is by sharing the contents pages. As you can see, there’s a whole section devoted to step by step instructions on how to make the lake pigment from the moment you have produced your dye bath through to turning your powdered pigments into watercolours and how to store your new treasures. Joanne is living in Canada but I can easily access many of the plants she uses in her recipes in Ireland.

Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green
Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green

Photography (primarily by Canadian photographer Tegan McMartin) – is sumptuous and a pleasure to view. It’s interspersed with Joanne’s tiny watercolours that are a feast to the eyes.

Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green
Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green

I am so pleased that I made the leap and purchased this book. I found it easy to source too. If you are a fan of Joanne’s social media postings or are curious about producing pigments, then it is a worthy purchase.

Felt Connect 2025

Felt Connect 2025

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As I write, nearly a week has passed since the 18th Southern Hemisphere Felters’ Convergence drew to a close but that peculiar mix of exhaustion, elation and excitement I felt as I drove home still lingers. I’m buzzing with so many ideas and happy memories! 🙂

The Felters Convergence is usually (pandemics permitting) a biennial event organised by volunteers from Australia or New Zealand. It is an opportunity for antipodean felt-makers to gather and share their knowledge and ideas. This year it was held in the beautifully quaint and historic suburb of Parnell in Auckland, New Zealand.

Before we arrived we were invited to “bring your smile”, a common refrain for anyone attending a social event but this time there was a twist…. We were to arrive with a smile and leave with a smile…. a felted smile! 🙂

Christine Roxburgh and Jenny Forrester (our very talented and incredibly hard-working organisers) put together an amazing, fun-packed program over the 4 days we had together. At almost any given moment there were 3 to 4 different classes or talks taking place and if that wasn’t enough, there was a room full of traders selling all manner of fibres, fabrics and felting equipment and a fabulous felt exhibition to visit. They REALLY crammed a lot in to the 4 days!

A small selection of pieces in the exhibition:

As Christine explained at the opening dinner, the Felt Connect title was a nod to the underlying philosophy of Convergence where feltmakers from far and wide come together to not only share their knowledge and love of fibre arts but also where new connections and international friendships form.

We had just shy of 100 attendees, 30 of whom were visiting from Australia and one came all the way from the US! Our headline tutors were equally international with Nancy Ballesteros from Western Australia, Katia Mokeyeva from Vermont in the US and Jacqui Collins from New Zealand.

Nancy taught for 3 very full days, covering topics such as:

  • colour theory for fibre artists
  • making properly fulled but beautifully drape-able felt in the Art of Drape class
  • the saucily titled, “Hanky Panky” session where she suggested lots of different ways to incorporate silk hankies into your felt
  • the Natural Rhythms class where she shared how she uses Fibonacci’s design principles in conjunction with her colour theory lecture from day 1. This allowed us the perfect opportunity to put some of what we had learned from her colour theory talk into practice while exploring wet-wool layout techniques.

Our sessions with Katia were a technological leap forward for Convergence, having someone teach 100 felt-makers from a different continent was novel and gave us the chance to learn from an expert that most of us will never have the opportunity to meet in person.

An example of Katia’s “Sea Waves” technique from her website

Katia provided us with pre-recorded videos of her signature “Sea Waves” technique and answered our questions over a Zoom call. Jenny did an amazing job of bringing it all together and resolving the inevitable technical issues that required her to hold the speaker jack in the computer so the room full of keen students could hear Katia’s replies to their questions from half a world away.

After our online session with Katia we were set free to experiment with our new learnings in the main hall.

Jacqui provided 4 full days of teaching, her classes were so popular many of them were over-subscribed. She covered a wide range of topics including, how to:

  • felt a fedora style hat using alpaca fibre,
  • make a wet-felted necklace,
  • painting on silk
  • construct and hang 3D wall art

And of course then there was the army of more than 20 volunteer tutors who offered to share their knowledge, a technique or ideas on how to develop your own style in new directions. There really was something for everyone!

A raffle was held to raise seed money for Convergence 2027 and the prizes were drawn on the final day:

Photographer – Pip Sturgeon

The final gala dinner and fashion show was a hoot, with heartfelt closing speeches from Jenny and Christine followed by the very funny “Glitter Sisters” AKA Lynn Evans and Sharon Fergusson, who hosted the felt fashion show with more than 20 stunning creations paraded among the enthralled diners.

L to R: Lynn Evans, Jenny Forrester, Sharon Fergusson and Christine Roxburgh. Photographer – Flo de Ruiter
Just a few of the fabulous felted outfits on display in the fashion parade. Photographer – Margaret Joppa
Bernice Mitchell modelling one of the three outfits she presented during the parade. Photographer – Margaret Joppa

Attending a Felters Convergence has been on my bucket list since I first read about the 2015 event and 10 years later, I’m pleased to say, Felt Connect 2025 massively exceeded my very high expectations and was worth the 10 year wait! Now I am hooked and Adelaide 2027 can’t come around soon enough! 🙂

Thank you so much to everyone who attended, organised and / or volunteered at this event, you are all utterly marvellous!

Ann’s Slipper workshop: from the students perspective

Ann’s Slipper workshop: from the students perspective

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I am very lucky to have a local weaving/spinning and felting guild in the city.  I know many felters are not so lucky.  As you have already heard, it is quite an active Guild, with meetings, socials, and workshops. Today we will have a chat about one of the felting workshops.

Ann will be teaching a few wet felting workshop this fall, including teaching wet felted slippers.  I had signed up quickly after registration opened, for both her slipper and hat workshops this fall. As you probably have notice I tend to be mostly a dry or needle felter, but occasionally I will get my hands damp or almost even wet and try a wet felting workshop.

It will be the first time running this workshop in the studio space, now that the floor looms have moved up stairs. This will allow for a slightly larger class size, we usually have 6 students for this workshop the extra space made it comfortable to try 8 students.

Ann had emailed the students a couple weeks before the workshop, to select their fiber colour. We would be using Corriedale for the slipper and she would have other fibers available to embellish them.

I gathered my wet felting bag from Living felt (Thanks Marie!) added some extra needles (just in case) found the camera, a Mer-boyfreind (in progress) and a large towel ready for the morning.

wet felting Kit from Living felt1.1) the Wet felting kit from Living Felt. I will be using the purple Ball Brause Wet Felting Tool.

6am, October 05, 2025 arrived much more quickly than I had anticipated.  I did a bit of computer work, then Glenn got my stuff into the car. I headed off to let Ann into the building, so she could set up for the class.

I heard the weather report as I was heading in and found out the sweater I had layered on, would not likely be necessary….. (The temp at 3pm, was 29.7c, which beat the 1941 record of 27.2 C.)

On Monday (the guild meeting day) we are expecting a high of 30 C and a humidex of 33c.  Did I forget to mention this is OCTOBER and its usually Much cooler by now. I am not complaining!!!! This gives me a bit more time to get the garden organized for winter.

I did arrive ahead of Ann but not by too much. She quickly got the tables up and started laying out the supplies for the workshop.

Ann cutting plastic with sisors2.1)  Ann prepping plastic for the workshop

bubble wrap, plastic sheet and pool noodle on table waiting for students2.2) bubble wrap, plastic and pool noodle

large storage bin in wagon in the studio2.3) Ann Brought not just the fiber for the slippers, but a wagon load of fiber.

Ann got the bag of 100 gr balls of the requested colours and handed them out.

distributing 100gr balls of wool in 3 photos  2.4) 100 gr balls of Corriedale fiber

She showed us sample of different types of slippers and showed the resist that would make that shape.

3 photos of sliper samples 2.5) slipper samples and patterns

We each selected our slipper shape and then traced our feet. Ann estimated the shrinkage and added it to the resist. We had the slipper with heal, the slipper without heal and a couple ankle high boot slipper shapes too. For high arch feet she had to add a bit of extra space.

Ann tracing foot shapes to create the resist shape 2.6) ankle books resist shape

this hart shape will create 2 slippers without a heal 2.7) heelless slipper resist

this is the shape with little off set wings that will make the slipper with heal2.8) slipper with heal resist.

We cut out our resist, (that’s floor underlay), it works well since we can feel it through the wool.

Next we divided the wool, fist in half (half for one side half for the other). I had to then spit each side in half, since I have two separate slippers, rather than one joined resist shape. For most, each side was divided into 4 equal lengths, since we will be adding 4 thin layers of fiber in alternating direction.

half fiber is devided into 4 balls, sitting on resist. one half of the fiber is still in a ball on the other resist3.1) starting to divide the fiber

Jumping ahead I have added 2 layers and was just starting the 3rd layer on the first side.

half the fiber is devided between the two resists. the same amount will be used on the other side of the resist.3.2) laying out the first side of the resist, last of the 4 layers starting to go down

 

After completing 4 layers over each slipper resist. I gently wobbled the fiber and then moved it off to one side and started what will be the other side.

thin even layers alternating direction there are now 4 shapes which are the top and bottom of both slippers.3.3) 4 layers on each slipper on each side

Once we had both sides with 4 layers of changing direction, it was time for lunch.

I mentioned Ann had brought a bit of fiber to embellish our slippers…. Ann’s wagon is obviously related to the Tardis! Boxes just kept emerging, and fiber appearing out of it! she covered the table with options, Marino top, Throwers waste, shredded hankies, sari waste top, locks and curls, silk blends, trilobal Nylon, her own hand spun yarn, and some mixed bits of odds and ends. We will get back to this distracting pile of clolours shortly.

another student looking through the embellishment fibers spred out over a 6 foot long table3.4) embellishment fibers filling the table

Next, we were getting into the really scary bit. We added water under the resist turned the edges and then added the second layer. The water even dripped on the floor!!!

this is a ankle boot shaped resist, Ann is carfuly tugging the fiber extending byond the resist on top of the resist.4.1) wetting the first side, and carefully wrapping the extra fiber around the resist

my resists sitting on wetted wool 4.2) my slippers start to get wet

plastic over the wool that has been added above the resist. the plastic keeps the fiber from sticking to my hands as i push the watter into the fiber.4.3) using the plastic to help spread the water (so the fiber doesn’t stick to your fingers)

the boot resist, wraping the fibers around the edge of the resist being very carefull not to make stong fold lines4.4) wrapping the second layers edge fibers around the wool rapped resist

Once we had the front and back wrapped around the edges of the resist,  it was time to consider embellishments.

3 photos of embelishment options.5.1) some of the embellishment fibers

Once the embellishing was added and in some cases wrapped to the other side, we wet the new fibers. I had chosen silk and wanted to give it a better opportunity to attach, so added thin whisks of hand blended merino wool over top of the silk.

after adding embelishment fibers more watter was added 5.2) embellishments added and then more water added

Maybe if I move the plastic you will get a peek?

Peekeing under plastic to see silk and wool added to slipper5.3) looking under the plastic at one of the tows of the slippers

Ann has been able to find a collection of the old Tupper ware lids. I will have to keep my eyes out for them too. We used them to gently rub from the edge of the resist towards the center. At first very lightly then adding just a tiny bit of pressure.

2 slippers in progress. tupperware lid used as rubbing tool.6.1) the rubbing with Tupperware lid

By this point the water was making a brake for it or a frontal assault, I’m not sure which. I employed the power of the towel and tried to keep the wetness in check! The towel did not stay dry long!

towl wrapped aruoung buble rap and plastic holding slippers/resists a bit of dampness is visiable on towl6.2) pinch test after rubbing is successful and it’s on to rolling!

I kept loosing track of my counting to 100 then flip and rotate the resists. You can see the slight rippling developing, there is some shrinkage happening.

during brack in rolling, opened plastic to see if there was any sign of shrinkage. only the fantest rippling present 6.3) checking everything is still attached and looking for signs of shrinkage

towl is now heavily saturated with water there is a faint lighened arria in one part of the center of the towl which is still dry.6.4) The water was making a valiant effort to soak me but I dogged as much as I could! The towel, on the other hand has only a small patch that is still dry, the rest is quite soaked

Mer-Stergon in progress turned away from the camera showing extencie gluteal development (he has a nice butt for a fish-person)) 6.5) Even the latest Mer I was working on, did not seem interested in getting wet! (Unrelated dry felting glute shot!)

Since Ann was having the other students stick their feet in the cold wet slippers, I used the original unscaled up foot tracing to check if my shrinkage was getting close.

laying paper foot shape over slipper shape to check asmount of shrinkage7.1) checking with foot size agents the length

this is another student trying on her bootie stile slipper, Ann was checking the fit and is now pulling the bootie off7.2) try it on

Once a slipper was close focused felting and shrinking were done to ether length, width or both.

Ann is rubbing the foot section side to side to reduce the width of the slipper7.3) adjustments

Mine still need more work but its getting closer.

2 slippers still need more shapping but are starting to look like slippers 7.4) still needs work but they now look like slippers, checking amount of shrinkage

I still have more work to do, but I can heat them up again and keep working on getting the heal a bit tighter. You can see I have had quite a bit of shrinkage I will work on them more this week.

But for now I have to head to bed. There is a guild meeting tomorrow as I am writing this, and I will need to leave extra early since there is expanded construction on the queens way today. I will give you an update on the slippers when they fit just a bit better (they are close but the heal is a bit loose, on one more than the other)

Ann was a fabulous teacher, as usual! She is very mellow and we didn’t feel rushed or confused.  In fact this is the second time I have taken the felted slipper workshop (and I stuck to the plan and actually made a set of slippers this time, not boots!  I think I have taken her hat class 5 times so far, each time making a totally different hat. this will be hat class #6. I still have to decide if I want to make a replacement for my stolen hat or make something new.) If you have the opportunity to take a workshop with her I would defiantly suggest it! and I do feel safer  from the evil wetness when I wet felt in a group!!

Have fun and keep felting!!

Registration for the 3D multi-part resist workshop is now open.

Registration for the 3D multi-part resist workshop is now open.

Comments 10 comments

Hi, I’m Ann McElroy. I have been doing in-person teaching for about 20 years now.  After hearing much demand for a workshop like this from people who do not have access to in-person teachers and much nagging encouragement from my fellow bloggers, I put this class together.  Doing multi-part resist is great fun, and there are so many possibilities for this technique. Registration opens today, and class starts Oct 17.  You can register here, just scroll to the bottom: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/3d-multi-part-resist/

Have you ever wondered about working with more than one resist? Have you tried one resist and found that only one is not enough? Do you want more? I can help! Why have a single resist when you could have a full book of them! This fun course will expand your felting horizons. This step-by-step course will guide you from building the multi-part resist to the finished piece and give you the skills to continue. Why use only one resist when you can use more?

This workshop is $60 Canadian, approx. $45 US, $37 Euro, $32 British Pounds, $66 Aus., $73 NZ.

The workshop will be open for 4 weeks: from October 17 to November 14, 2025.  Here is a link to the material list: 3D supply list.   You will likely already have most or all of this. Registration and contact information are at the bottom of the page. Registration will open on October 1 2025.

This course is designed for Felters who have felted over a simple resist before. An experienced felter may be able to complete this class within a single day; however, the course can easily be extended over multiple days as needed. You can stop at the end of each PDF and continue another day or time. Using a step-by-step guide, you will make a three-dimensional six-part resist. This type of resist is often called a book resist, as it resembles an open book with the pages splayed.

The workshop is accessible for four weeks and has four downloadable instructional PDFs. I will be available to answer any questions for the 4 weeks the class is open. You will also have access to community spaces where you can share progress pictures and connect with the teacher and other students.

Your learning goals

  • Learn how to make a multipart 3D book resist
  • You will learn how to lay out and manage your wool for a three-dimensional resist.
  • How to bring the wool and resist together in an organised and logical way. Including all the fiddly bits.
  • How to felt a multi-part resist, managing all the parts.
  • Learn three different methods of fulling and their advantages and disadvantages.
  • You will have the option to choose from various finishing methods.
  • How to use some everyday items to help with shaping and finishing.
  • Experimenting with different shapes.

By the end of the course, you will have a unique sculpture. Mastering the book resist technique, you will unlock new creative possibilities for complex sculptural felting.

 

This workshop is $60 Canadian, approx. $45 US, $37 Euro, $32 Pounds, $66 Aus., $73 NZ.

You will be billed/invoiced by PayPal, and the vendor name on the bill will be Shepherds’ Spring Farm. Class sizes are limited to 50. A supply list, a Class Website Navigation PDF, and an Adding Photos to the Class Website PDF will be attached to the PayPal invoice for your convenience.

Please remember that the course content is for your own use and should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without obtaining my prior written permission. Please respect the copyright.

The workshop will be open for 4 weeks: from October 17 to November 14, 2025.

Registration is now open. Register here, just scroll to the bottom: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/3d-multi-part-resist/

 

Felted Flower Workshop

Felted Flower Workshop

Comments 12 comments

You may remember I did a post about dyeing silk hankies for a workshop at Pinhey’s Point.  https://wp.me/p1WEqk-j91  Sunday was the class.

I was set up in what was originally the dining room of the house. It was a bit tight with 10 people around 2 tables,

But everyone did fine. Everyone kept thier elbows down and we had a great time.

First, we did a petunia/morning glory. More in general shape than reality.  This is a nice, simple flower for people who have never felted anything before. Not a great picture, but it was the only one I could find that I had uploaded before. I used to be terrible at naming my pictures. I am much better now. Makes it much easier to find what you’re looking for.

Once everyone had their flower done, we had a break. The museum provided a great snack table for our break. We all felt very spoiled.

Then we moved on to the silk hanky flower.  I explained about what they were and how they were made, and everyone had to pick a colour. It was so hard to choose.

They learned how to make the stems and the stamens for a more complete flower. Here they are doing the dry rolling to compact it before wetting.

Then it got busy, and I was running around the tables helping people. It is always tricky getting the stem and stamen centred on opposite sides. But everyone managed.  The biggest problem was with stems not sticking. We had 3 with stems totally detached and one partial detachment. I think it was a combination of felting the base of the stem too hard at first and pulling it away when moving the stem to a different position to rub the flower. All but one had felting needles at home with instructions on reattaching the stem after it’s dry. I gave a needle to the last person and explained how to use it to fix the small area that was not attached properly.

No more pictures until the end. All in all, a great day. Everyone seemed happy, and there are definitely some new addicts in the making.

 

I have no idea what the white spot is. It is on the original in my phone.

Ann

 

 

 

Playing with prefelt

Playing with prefelt

Comments 16 comments

In May this year, I wrote about about a vessel I’d made for an exhibition called ‘Edge’.  Although this hadn’t been the intention, the vessel gave me a sort of Japanese minimalism vibe, which was something I wanted to revisit.

Edge Vessel

The vessel fit the Edge brief in that I’d used a circular resist to create the shape but rather than cut the hole in the centre of the circle, I’d stood it on one edge, with the hole on the opposite edge.  I like this shape and want to explore it further.

The fibre I’d used was something I also want to come back to.  A beautiful fine carded merino and silk mix from World of Wool, it was time-consuming to lay out because of the short staple-length, but produced a lovely, light and velvety soft felt.

Before leaping into making something with so many variables of shape, surface design and fibre, I knew I needed to make some samples and decided to think first about the surface design.

I have no real knowledge of Japanese minimalist art and am not trying to replicate it, just play around with some of the simplicity of design and colours as inspiration.  I love problem-solving (or perhaps that’s problem-investigating) so was setting myself a bit of a challenge.

I’ve seen various images of beautiful Japanese brush work using black ink brush strokes and red circles on a white background and I wondered if I could create something like that in felt. The biggest challenge seemed to be how to wet felt black, red and white together while keeping the colours separate. Prefelt seemed to be one way to go so I made three different black prefelts to see which might look like black ink brush strokes.

Using commercial black merino prefelt, I cut a strip and felted it a little. I didn’t think this would work well as it’s the cut ends that move most into the surrounding fibres and this strip is basically all cut edges. Next, I tried lightly prefelting two other types of black merino wool: carded and tops, as if I was starting to make felt rope.

commercial prefelt strip
carded batt layout
carded batt prefelt
top to bottom: merino strips from commercial prefelt, carded batt prefelt, tops prefelt
Prefelt for black lines

The tops and carded wool produced very similar-looking results and I confess, when I got to the making bit, I lost track of which was which. The advantage of these was that the fibres are mainly running along the length of the line rather than sticking out of the sides so there should be less migration into the white. I decided I’d use these rather than the commercial prefelt strip.

I then turned my attention to red circles.  I suspect carded wool might be best but I only have tops in red so that was what I used.  First, I just tried making a circle freehand.  I got about 2/3 of a circle and a raggedy bit.  On the plus side, there weren’t cut edges, so that should help minimise side-to-side fibre migration. On the minus side, the shape left a lot to be desired!  Needs further work.

Next, I made some red prefelt and cut a couple of circles out of it.  I thought this would work less well but I was interested to see how they compared with the freehand idea.

 

freehand shape
red prefelt with circle template
Making red circles

I was aiming for a very simple design, so played around arranging black strands and red circles in different combinations.

Testing out different layouts

Now to actually make a sample.

My chosen layout

I used a rectangle of white silk and merino commercial prefelt for speed, and felted it together with three black strips and a red circle to see what happened.

Sample 1 completed

As you can see, the black didn’t migrate much on the long sides, though it did where I’d cut the shorter pieces (on the ends on the left side).  The lines did, however, crimp and move a bit – maybe I need to prefelt these a bit less on the length and definitely more on any cut ends.  Also, I must keep a better check on any movement as I felt.

The red, on the other hand, probably needed prefelting more as there was quite a lot of migration there.  Basically, far too many loose cut ends, so either felt the edges harder or go back to a different layout.

At this point, I wonder why the heck I’m doing this: the layout looks so much better than the felted piece.  Nevertheless, I decide to make a quick second sample before I finish for the day.

This time I used the freehand red circle with the raggedy edge. Somewhere in the dusty corners of my brain, I’d started to think about using resists to reveal the colours rather than just laying them on the surface.  I hadn’t actually developed this thought but just plonked a resist on top of the red felt and laid a second layer of the white over the whole of the piece.  I had some vague thoughts about the red incomplete circle looking a bit like a setting sun so placed it near the bottom and thought I could perhaps print some flying bird silhouettes on the upper part afterwards.

OK, I’m sort of freewheeling by this stage.

Sample 2 layout
Sample 2 layout with extra layer
Sample 2 felted
Sample 2

 

The useful learning from my experiments thus far was that the freehand circle (which has fibres running around the circumference of the circle, therefore avoiding lots of ends sticking out) works much better.  You can see this very clearly from the under side.  The cut ends clearly also migrate much more up and down as well as side to side. The freehand shape was probably also felted a bit harder than the red prefelt sheet.

Sample 1 underside: lots of migration round the edges
Sample 2 underside: very little migration
Comparing undersides of samples 1 & 2

 

For my final two test pieces, I lightly needle-felted some red circles then wet-felted the edges to make them as neat as possible. I went back to using the original white carded 70:30 merino:silk mix and decided to concentrate on getting the red circle right.  I laid out two layers of fibre at right-angles to each other and put a needle felted circle top right.

Needle felted circle
Sample 3 layout
Sample 3 felted
Sample 3 finished with a printed tree
Sample 3 using needle felted circle

The needle-felted circle felted in well and when it was dry I printed a tree onto it.  It’s a bit big but I’m going to make this into a birthday card for my Mum.

For my final test piece I continued with the carded merino & silk batt.  I laid four layers of fibre round a circular resist and added one needle-felted red circle on each side.

As with my earlier Edge vessel, I cut it on one of the edges (rather than in the centre of the circle) and designed it to sit on the opposite edge.

Part-way through fulling, I worried that one of the red circles hadn’t felted in very well so did a little judicious needle felting around its edges before finishing the vessel.

layout for layers 1 & 3
layout for layers 2 & 4
Side 1 – still wet
Side 2 – still wet
Side 1 – nearly dry
Vessel with 2 circles: sample 4

This is a lot smaller than my original ‘edge’ vessel and much sturdier.

Conclusions?

The needle-felted and freehand wet-felted circles work better than cutting the circles from prefelt. I like the effect though could maybe make the need-felted circles a bit thinner: they do look as if they’re partially sitting on top of the surface.  I’m happy that I’ve more or less cracked that bit of my challenge.  As for the black lines, I’m leaving them for now but may come back to them at a later stage. The carded merino / silk batt was lovely to work with and I will definitely be making more things using this fibre. I might make a series of vessels using different colours and / or numbers of circles. I may also develop combining a circle and a printed tree. As usual, each experiment opens up lots of new possibilities. So much felt to make and too little time…..